Blueprints and Specs

The Glance team uses the glance-specs repository for its specification reviews. Detailed information can be found here. Please also find additional information in the reviews.rst file.

The Glance team enforces a deadline for specs proposals. It’s a soft freeze that happens after the first milestone is cut and before the second milestone is out. There’s a freeze exception week that follows the freeze week. A new proposal can still be submitted during this period, but be aware that it will most likely be postponed unless a particularly good argument is made in favor of having an exception for it.

Please note that we use a template for spec submissions. It is not required to fill out all sections in the template. Review of the spec may require filling in information left out by the submitter.

Spec Notes

There are occasions when a spec will be approved and the code will not land in the cycle it was targeted at. For these cases, the work flow to get the spec into the next release is as follows:

  • Anyone can propose a patch to glance-specs which moves a spec from the previous release into the new release directory.

The specs which are moved in this way can be fast-tracked into the next release. Please note that it is required to re-propose the spec for the new release however and that it’ll be evaluated based on the resources available and cycle priorities.

Glance Spec Lite

In addition to the heavy-duty design documents described above, we’ve made a provision for lightweight design documents for developers who have an idea for a small, uncontroversial change. In such a case, you can propose a spec lite, which is a quick description of what you want to do.

You propose a spec-lite in the same way you propose a full spec: copy the spec-lite template in the approved directory for the release cycle in which you’re proposing the change, fill out the appropriate sections, and put up a patch in gerrit.

Lite spec Submission Guidelines

Before we dive into the guidelines for writing a good lite spec, it is worth mentioning that depending on your level of engagement with the Glance project and your role (user, developer, deployer, operator, etc.), you are more than welcome to have a preliminary discussion of a potential lite spec by reaching out to other people involved in the project. This usually happens by posting mails on the relevant mailing lists (e.g. openstack-discuss - include [glance] in the subject) or on #openstack-glance IRC channel on OFTC. If current ongoing code reviews are related to your feature, posting comments/questions on gerrit may also be a way to engage. Some amount of interaction with Glance developers will give you an idea of the plausibility and form of your lite spec before you submit it. That said, this is not mandatory.